A highly anticipated Google algorithm update hits today, and websites that aren’t mobile-friendly will start suffering in mobile search results. With this update, Google will use a precise set of factors to decide whether or not a site is mobile-friendly: websites that have no mobile viewport set, text that is too small, and/or content that is wider than the mobile screen – among other factors – will be penalized. According to Google, this algorithmic change will have an even larger impact than Penguin or Panda on mobile search results in all languages worldwide.

How Mobile-Friendly are the Country’s Top Companies?

With this significant impact looming, we decided to take a look at the Fortune 100 to see if these companies are ready for the change. We used Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool, and to our surprise, of the top 100 companies, only 67 had websites that Google considered mobile-friendly.

Of the websites that weren’t considered mobile-friendly, the most common issues that Google recognized were that text was too small to read and links were too close together. In fact, of the top 20 Fortune 100 sites, five suffered from links being too close together, and four of those sites were also hurt by text being too small. Other sites that we tested suffered from not having a mobile viewport set, content being blocked, and navigational difficulty.

So, if a third of the top 100 U.S. companies have not adjusted their websites for mobile search, what does this mean for the rest of us?

Your advocacy campaign is missing a critical component. You’ve spent thousands on message testing, a microsite, banner ads, TV spots, and a team of consultants. Your media team placed fantastic letters to the editors of newspapers, which unfortunately couldn’t be tracked. But you were lucky to have a mailing list, so you emailed your advocates and 7% sent a letter to their elected officials. A few even tweeted.

Unfortunately, so did your competitors on the opposite side of the issue who, by the way, happen to donate twice as much to Members of Congress.

There is no silver bullet in issue advocacy, but there is very often a missing piece: search engines.

Why Does Search Matter?

You know about Google. They process 40,000 search queries per second and 3.5 billion searches per day. Many of those searchers seek restaurant recommendations, help with a school paper, or the best local plumber, but they also seek information about your issue.

People search for healthcare and healthcare reform over 63,000 times per month, but they searched obamacare 823,000 times per month in 2014 – that represents more eyeballs than all but our country’s top 3 newspapers in circulation.

People search for gun laws and gun control 82,000 times per month but they searched NRA 135,000 times per month in 2014.

The point is, there is a tremendous audience of people who seek information about your issue – but they do so using their own search terms, and on their own time. Achieving a true online presence requires reaching these people by ranking for those terms. If your story isn’t there, your opposition’s story will be.

It’s no secret that social media is where everyone spends their time. With 1.39 billion users on Facebook, 288 million on Twitter, and 347 million on LinkedIn, these social media channels are exploding with potential customers for your business. It’s good news, then, that each platform has several advertising options to help you reach them! Whether your goal is gaining leads or driving awareness, you can achieve great results – across a variety of devices – with social media advertising.

But where do you begin?

We’ve developed a social media advertising cheat sheet that shows you the specs for the most used ads on the big three social channels – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Once you’ve launched these ads and are driving people to your page, you can expand into advanced advertising techniques such as app installs on Facebook, lead gen cards on Twitter, and premium display ads on LinkedIn.

It’s a natural response – you’re paying for your ads to be seen by users and you want to see them too! What many advertisers fail to realize, however, is that searching for your own ads on a search engine can actually be harmful. It’s also a very inaccurate way of evaluating your ad’s performance.

When a user performs a search, keywords are not the only factor that determines if your ad will be displayed. There are a number of settings within the Google AdWords interface that determine whether your ad should be shown to a particular user:

You’ve probably seen the ads: “Set up your website for free! No coding!” With such low barriers to entry and more plug-and-play design platforms, why not create your own website?
While it seems like an easy and affordable solution, using a DIY website platform won’t necessarily be your organization’s silver bullet solution. With millions of brands competing for users’ clicks and dollars, it’s important to incorporate best practices that increase your site’s visibility and usability.

So, if you’re wading into the waters of DIY website building, here are eight essential tips to help you swim instead of sink:

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About RepEquity

RepEquity merges the science of search and social media with award-winning creative and technology to enhance and protect brands online.

How do we do it? Technically, the secret’s in the sauce. But our model incorporates search engine optimization, social media, Web and mobile development alongside detailed metrics and proprietary technology tools to protect brands and reach target users on any platform or device.